Eureka! Tennis coverage online

Without any live coverage of Roland Garros to watch on tv, I've been bored to death watching live scores online for the past few days. I also discovered a good link to live streaming video of Eurosports France. Although I get a tiny 1-inch video image on my laptop screen and can't understand a thing of the French commentary, it's better than nothing. But just earlier I came across a great video website with all sorts of live streaming video and have settled on a channel showing ESPN. The image is much bigger and is not as choppy. I hope the link works until at least the end of the tournament because I definitely don't want to miss out on any action on court!

"To die for"

Somebody earlier remarked that so-and-so something was "to die for". Although I know that it's simply an exaggeration, it struck me how odd that expression was. I mean I would certainly die for somebody or for a cause. But for some object? I wouldn't want to die for it otherwise I wouldn't be around to enjoy it.

In the Ring of Fire

While exploring our area using Google Maps earlier, I switched to the Terrain view. I've already known that the nearby mountain is an extinct--perhaps even just a dormant--volcano. And the Terrain view clearly backed this up. What was even a scarier discovery though was to see the entire Southern and Central Luzon region dotted with mountains topped with what were clearly craters--Mt. Pinatubo among them. Imagine being surrounded by all those extinct volcanoes any of which could come back to life anytime now.

We're on Google Maps!

I thought I'd check out Google Maps earlier just to see if our town was finally included among the hi-res satellite image updates made in the past few months. And it was! Finally, finally, finally! I zoomed in right away to the area where our house is. And there it was: rectangular beige roof at the foot of "our" hill. Hee-hee.

Wasted slots

Last Tuesday seven other instructors from my department and I attended a seminar series on teaching organized by the university. When I showed up for part two of the series today only three of the other instructors were there. And then only one stayed on until the end of the day. What a disappointment! To think that there were limited slots for attending the seminar and our former director fought to have eight slots alloted to our department. And now these irresponsible instructors have totally wasted them.

Live radio "coverage"

Here I am once again watching Roland Garros live scores online and listening to Roland Garros Radio hoping I will be able to imagine what's going on on the court based on the commentators' descriptions. But to my great disappointment, the two fellows spend most of their time on air discussing and sometimes even arguing about faraway tennis issues--like who should or should not be inducted into the International Hall of Fame--and just occasionally comment on the action on court.

Rain, rain, go away

Nope, not the rain here but the rain that's wreaking havoc on this year's Roland Garros in Paris. Today I came home before 6pm hoping to catch some tennis "action" (i.e., by watching live scores on my laptop) but was disappointed to find that the start time for the first match had been moved from 11am to 12:30pm because of the rain (again!). Checking back later, I see that play will now start at 1:30pm. Then when I check back again at 7:30pm (local time), the website now says 1:45pm instead. Play did finally commence just before 2pm (Paris local time) but now there's yet been another rain delay!

Impromptu jam session

I didn't get to play my keyboard that much during tonight's seminar on music despite the topic being on pitch and key signatures. But I had some fun jamming afterwards with our cantor after we found out that we both liked the same set of mass songs. (He had not sang those songs ever since he got back from the US a year ago while I had been hoping all these years that someone would be interested in singing those songs again during mass.)

Deserted campus

To get a bit of exercise and stretch my legs, I walked up to the third floor of our office building earlier this afternoon. There I paused at the open lobby overlooking central campus. The only people I see are an occasional student walking by with an umbrella over his/her head (there was a slight drizzle) or biking through campus, and a boy in rags--probably from the slum areas outside campus--trying to repair the broken chain of his bicycle in the shelter of the bus stop in front of our building. At the same time, I rued the fact that I didn't have my camera with me to capture how peaceful the campus looked without crowds of students milling around and cars filling the parking lots.

The scenic route

After eating lunch out outside campus and seeing that the weather was pleasant enough for a walk, I decided to take a different route back to my office for a change of scenery. As a result, I got to see what renovation work was being done on the main office building of our college. The walls and roof were being repainted and section of roofing was (finally!) being built over the stairs coming down from the rear entrance.

Last minute request

Less than an hour before the start of the mass (and half an hour before the praying of the rosary commenced), our church choir group was approached by the head of the liturgical ministry of our parish to chant the Sequence before the Alleluia as well as the Adoro te Devote after communion! We--or I should say our cantor who would primarily do the singing--were naturally distressed and upset that we weren't told well in advance so that we could learn and practice adequately. He managed to improvise a melody for the sequence and learn the Adoro Te despite no sheet music being provided but he said afterwards that never again would he acquiesce to such last minute things.

Missing French Open action

Last year Solar Sports decided against buying the rights to televise live coverage of the US Open. Now after checking their program schedule I have discovered that they're apparently going to do same for Roland Garros this year. Oh, what a bummer! ( There actually is another channel called Balls TV that will be showing the tournament. But Balls is only shown on Sky Cable, the cable tv provider exclusive to Manila.) It will be back to watching live scores online for me now I suppose.

Stored memories

I had to dig through my stuff here to look for my pitch pipe which I thought would be useful during the weekly music seminars I'm currently attending. While I didn't find what I was looking for--sigh, I wonder where it is!--I rediscovered a few things: old registration forms with signatures of my professors then who are now my colleagues at work; old punch cards from my first programming classes still stacked in their original order; and my old diaries which include a lengthy and detailed account of those three days more than twenty years ago when I competed at a national piano competition.

Left and right

I'm right-handed but I've long realized that I do some things with my left hand. I hold my glass or cup with my left hand while eating; I prefer to pour water from a bottle or pitcher using my left hand; and I type text messages on my cellphone using the thumb of my left hand. Then I carry my shoulder bag over my left shoulder. I also know that my dominant eye is my left eye and that I hold the phone receiver to my left ear. Then while driving home today, I discovered that I actually steer the car using my left hand and just use my right hand to hold the steering wheel steady.

Justice Pinoy style

I am disappointed--though not entirely surprised--about the way authorities have handled investigations into the recent brutal murder of ten people during a bank robbery in Cabuyao, Laguna: As part of their operations to nab those responsible for the crime, they have gone out and killed four suspects during a shootout. But as news articles say, the police have yet to determine whether the suspects were actually involved in the murders!

And sad to say, that is very typical of criminal investigations here. As inexcusable as the original crime was, doesn't killing alleged suspects also bring down the police to the level of the murderers? Aren't police trained to give the alleged or suspected criminals a chance to surrender peacefully before resorting to deadly force even in extremely dangerous situations (unless of course there is an immediate threat to life)? Isn't it also downright stupid to kill the suspects when we could have obtained more crucial information about the actual perpetrators had they been taken alive? (I could rant on but my "30 seconds" have long been up.)

Good sights and smell

Two beautiful things today (a la Three Beautiful Things):

• A view of the full moon rising outside my window, partially obscured by leaves of the huge bamboo plant in the garden.
• I made my own Glade air freshener (for my office) by mixing the scented oil and crystals provided in the package with water. I get some of the oil on my fingers and the sweet fragrance of lavender, jasmine and others linger long after I wash my hands.
  

Worth its weight in volume

My mother recently bought half a gallon ice cream from the local dairy for us to try--again, that is, since we actually have been buying some on and off in the past several years. First she bought the strawberry flavored one and then, because that turned out to be good (in fact, much richer than the ice cream that commercially available in the supermarkets), chocolate. But as I was scooping some for dessert after dinner, I noticed a major boo-boo on the label: it read "Net weight: 1/2 gallon."

Tranquilizer overdose

I brought along my CDs of Gregorian Chant and other sacred music hoping to stay relaxed while I work by listening to some peaceful music. (I'm expecting things to start getting hectic soon here at work now that the summer term is just about over and the regular semester starts in three weeks!) But I'm afraid my plan kind of backfired: I'm now finding myself yawning and practically dozing off here while working at my PC.

"Watching" tv

Practically every evening after supper my father watches his favorite tv shows on the Discovery and National Geographic channels while sitting in one of our comfortable rocking chairs in the family room. The tv's volume is usually turned up such that I can hear it blaring just outside my bedroom. (Sometimes I don't even have to turn up the volume on my tv if I happen to be watching the same show here in my room). And just a few moments ago, I heard the tv remote control clatter to the floor: My father must have dozed off again while watching!

Menu switch

Today my meals got switched: I brought food (rice, chicken adobo and tortang talong) from home to eat for lunch mainly to avoid having to walk in the pouring rain (it pours nearly everyday now) to the fastfood restaurants outside campus. (It also meant though that I would miss getting some exercise from that daily walk.) Then when I got home this evening, I discovered that my mother had bought me a Whopper (yum yum yum!) from the Burger King branch in the next town to eat for dinner.

Seen on the drive to work

Just two things I took note of when I drove down to work this morning:

• A fat fellow on motorcycle wearing a ridiculously small yellow construction helmet in place of a motorbike helmet. I don't think the replacement helmet would offer much protection from head injuries during an accident nor keep the fellow dry at the moment (it was raining).
• Someone's two pet ducks on the side of the main road, dredging for food in puddles of rainwater and among fallen branches.
  

Frustrated musicians

At this evening's music seminar for our parish's choir members, I met someone who had similar dreams of pursuing music as a career but never had the means or opportunity to do so. While he went on to be a medical doctor, he continued to join choirs in order to fulfill a need to keep music in his life. I on the other hand was likewise lucky enough to be asked to be piano accompanist to a number of choirs and, as I realized lately, took out my frustrations by maintaining a growing collection of CDs (mostly classical, of course), purchasing and downloading piano sheet music to learn on my own, attending concerts and piano masterclasses whenever I could afford to (this was mainly when I was in Singapore) and getting myself my precious Yamaha P-80.

Timber!

This afternoon I could hear the annoying buzz of a chainsaw from somewhere near our office building. This went on for several minutes before it thankfully stopped. Suddenly there was a frightening crash that shook the building and rattled the grill on my windows. On looking outside my window to find what caused the crash, I saw that some grounds men had cut down one of the many palm trees lining the road across from our building. The tree was one of those that had died recently and was in danger of toppling over and hurting someone in the process.

Guess who won?

Of course I was disappointed with the outcome of the finals match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer at the ATP Masters Series tournament in Hamburg. But I couldn't help but laugh at the photo of both players looking like Sad Sacks while posing with their trophies. If you didn't know what the winner's trophy looks like you probably wouldn't be able to tell who won the title!
Photo credit: AP Photo/Joerg Sarbach

Weight loss confirmed

Remember when I thought I had lost some weight or inches last month because my clothes felt more loose? The other day I tried on the red dress that I bought in Singapore years ago when I was much fitter and slimmer, and it fitted! Then today I confirmed that I had lost weight, six pounds to be exact because I'm down to 110lbs. I haven't been making any conscious effort to lose weight so it's a bit of a mystery why that happened. But there's a possible explanation: I've been aware that I haven't been as hungry as usual between meals lately and hence have not been eating snacks in the morning and afternoon at work. Due to less stress perhaps?

Battle on the court

Right now I'm watching a terrific battle between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal for a place in the finals of the Hamburg Masters Series and, more importantly, for the number two spot in the ATP rankings. The two young gladiators are really slugging it out there on the clay court, producing long exciting rallies and jaw dropping winners. With all the fist pumping and raw emotion, all the drama... it's simply great stuff! I have a feeling though that Djokovic will eventually burn himself out. He simply doesn't have the stamina--not yet at least--to match Nadal's intense physical clay court game. But then again Djokovic can be quite tenacious.

Dental check up

I finally got to go to the dentist today for prophylaxis. Since it's been a few years since I've had one, I was quite nervous about this visit, being afraid that my dentist would discover new cavities. But it didn't turn out as bad as I thought. (And I sat in that dreaded chair just under three quarters of a hour.) Although my gums are now a little sore form all the cleaning, I'm relieved that my teeth were given a clean bill of health. Phew! And my dentist was also nice enough to apply flouride on my teeth for extra protection.

Stranded

For possibly the first time ever in my life, I got caught out in the rain without an umbrella. When I went out to lunch earlier, I didn't bring along my umbrella after seeing that it was sunny and hot out. But while I was eating at one of the fastfood restaurants, I was dismayed to see that it was pouring outside. Luckily the rain had stopped by the time I was done eating. So I set out to walk back to my office. But then it began to rain harder halfway there and I had no choice to wait it out at another building. There I waited with other people stranded by the rain before when the weather cleared just enough for me to walk back to my office about twenty minutes later.

Full tank, empty pocket

I think I'll have to start walking or biking to work sooner or later. When I had the gas tank of my car filled earlier before my trip to Manila I was shocked to see that unleaded gasoline now costs more than Php50 per liter. Consequently I had to pay more than Php1555 for just half a tankful of gas! (The indicator of my car's fuel gauge was on the first tick below the halfway mark.)

Fastfood fatigue

I'm afraid that given the limited choices near the campus I've finally gotten tired of eating nearly the same food for lunch everyday. It took some time for me to decide what to eat for lunch earlier before I reluctantly settled on roast chicken from the little kiosk near the mall. Sometimes I wish could explore other eating places outside campus. But then I don't have much time during the lunch hour to walk to other places farther out. Driving is also out of the question since gasoline prices have skyrocketed. Besides, after all the stress we get from work, who would be crazy enough to drive through the chaos of noontime rush hour just to have lunch?

Moat

After having eaten lunch out I was in a slight stupor--thanks to the cooler temperatures brought on by the downpour earlier--as I approached the front entrance of our office building. Fortunately, I woke up just in time. If I had not, I would have made a fool of myself by stepping into the large pool of rainwater (about two inches deep) that had accumulated around the steps leading up to our office building. (The walk slopes down toward the steps from the street.) I then turned around and made my way to the side entrance instead.

Let there be light

Earlier this evening I attended a music workshop, the third in a series of eight workshops intended to teach members of church choirs to read music. Since I can read music fairly well I didn't really need to attend but the resource person eventually realized that he needed someone to play the keyboard during vocalization exercises. So I showed up with my keyboard tonight. Unfortunately, just as the opening prayers were being said, the lights went out! In order to kill time while waiting for power to be restored, we had breathing exercises and vocalized (without the keyboard, of course). But because the power wasn't back yet an hour later, the resource person announced that he would hold the workshop proper next week instead, and then he proceeded to lead the closing prayers. Just as he pronounced "Amen" the lights turned on!

Mother's Day with the family

I just want to record that today, Mother's Day, was spent with most of my relatives on my mother's side--including my 95-year-old grandmother and one whom I had never met before: the youngest of all my cousins who is 24 years younger than I am. We had difficulty finding a place to eat because all the restaurants were full of families similarly having lunch out to celebrate Mother's Day and because there were so many of us (twenty in all)!

Partisan crowd

Federer is losing his quarterfinals match against Stepanek in Rome, 6-7 2-4. Yes, of course, I'm disappointed but I can't help but be amused by how the crowd watching is so obviously in favor of Federer. They cheer when he hits a winner and they roar when Stepanek makes an error. And just now the crowd is once again abuzz with excitement because Federer has just broken back for 3-4 in the second set.

As ephemeral as a rainbow

There was a light rain with the sun setting behind me and slightly to my left as I drove home. When I looked east toward the side road I was eventually turning into I was thrilled to catch sight of a brilliant band of colors in the sky ahead of me. Then, after quickly taking my eyes off the road a few times to follow its arc, I saw that the rainbow was complete! I even got a better view when I was able to slow down slightly after turning into the less busy road that lead home. So when I got home about five minutes later, I rushed inside the house to grab my camera. But by the time I got back outside, the sun had sunk a little lower into the horizon causing the rainbow to become too faint to be satisfactorily captured on film. Sigh.

Today's unwritten rule

Over at Mental Floss blog is a challenge to name an unwritten rule that one generally experiences in life. I've just remembered one after ordering lunch at Chow King: When you receive your order at a fastfood restaurant it rarely looks the way it is depicted on the menu display. Take for instance the beef chao fan I ordered today with fried dumplings as topping; it just never has as much vegetables as the picture of that item on the display shows.

My upstairs office neighbor

This morning while trying to work here at my office PC, a constant thumping could be heard from the concrete ceiling above. At first I thought I could ignore it and get on with my work but it just got more annoying especially since I was listening to Chopin piano sonatas playing on my PC's CD drive. So I went up to the second floor office to see if I could stop the noise. All the offices there had their doors closed except for one where a young fellow, possibly a student or a young instructor, was working at a PC with headphones on. And he was stomping on the floor with his right foot in time with whatever music he was listening to! The poor fellow looked thoroughly embarrassed and apologized profusely when I asked him as nicely as possible to stop the stomping.

Family feud

I am saddened to hear that a distant relative has gone to court to contest the will and testament of an aunt who bequeathed considerable wealth to her siblings but left her virtually nothing--or so it appears. Having seen this kind of thing played out too many times in the past, I have nothing more to say on this other than that I'm relieved and thankful that this relative is a very distant relative.

Something out of nothing

I'm back home from today's brief shopping trip--done to make the most out of the van we hired--with a new automatic voltage regulator (can't hurt to have one more in the house), a keyring, a can of make-it-yourself air freshener, a one-hole puncher, four ID cases, one of those handy new double-sided tape dispensers, and a 1000 piece puzzle (which proves how bored I am this summer). And what was on my shopping list? Nothing. Not one item. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Truly a dangerous way to shop! Tsk tsk.

Air, air everywhere ...

During my trip today to Manila--my first in several months, by the way--I was reminded once again why I'm lucky not to be living in that city: instead of a clear blue sky all I see is the dull gray smog enveloping the city. Plus the haze is so thick that skyscrapers less than a mile away can barely be seen. Ugh! I can't imagine what it's like living in one of those condominiums and not being able to open the windows to let in fresh air.

A really old book

After sitting in as a casual observer at a music workshop last night, I decided to dig up some music books that I had to do a bit of reviewing on music notation and theory. One of the books I've had since the 1980s was a fragile copy of The Principles of Expression in Pianoforte Playing by Adolph Christiani which originally belonged to a grand aunt. According to my grandmother's inscription on the endpapers it was given to her sister in the 1920s by someone who I presume was her piano teacher. I opened it for the first time in more than a decade and was astonished to find that the copyright was dated 1885. That in all likelihood makes it the oldest book we have here at home!

The cat on the mat is back

Today was a rainy day and so it was no surprise when I arrived home earlier to see the large stray tom cat claiming the front door mat once again for himself . He looked pretty bad yesterday when I saw him under the car with his face all scratched up apparently from a fight with another neighborhood cat. But today he looked much better and was his usual sleepy self, meowing lazily and refusing to open his eyes when I talked to him before making my way into the house.

I just want my vitamin D!

I often get funny looks from other people whenever I go out walking to lunch under the hot summer sun--sometimes it's 35C out there nowadays--without an umbrella over my head. Other staff I meet along the way sometimes even ask, "Nagpapaitim ka ba?" (Are you trying to get a tan?) On the contrary, I'm not crazy about getting a tan. My reason is actually quite simple: My job entails working indoors at my desk or at my computer practically all day. So why shouldn't I want to get exposed to good healthy sunlight even if it's for just ten minutes everyday?

No plastic bags, please

As my small contribution toward saving the environment, I've been bringing along a small cloth bag for my take-out lunches and requesting people taking my order at the fast food restaurants not to put my food in plastic bags. Despite doing this for the past three months, I continued to get puzzled reactions, with many even insisting on using plastic bags saying that the food or drink might spill and spoil my cute little bag. But today, the girl behind the counter at McDonald's finally recognized the little bag I had just pulled out from my knapsack and asked, "Hindi na po ilalagay sa plastic bag?" (Not to be placed in plastic bags?) When I replied, "Yes," she handed me my cheeseburger, fries and pineapple juice without another word.

Searching for the fountain of youth

A friend, who is married with two daughters, and I discovered that we were both approached by one of our students to fill up a survey which was part of an assignment for another class and attempted to find out people's secrets for looking young. Naturally we were both flattered but at the same time laughingly admitted that we weren't particular about using age-defying products to look young. In other words, we didn't have any secret formula. After further reflection however we concluded that the secret to looking young was perhaps not being obsessed about it.

Love's labour's lost

Having not seen the mother bird show up all day today I suppose it's official: The egg in the nest outside the bedroom window here has been abandoned. The egg is still there; I can still see it at the bottom of the nest. Poor thing. How ironic that the mother bird should abandon it starting on Labor Day.

Abandoned egg?

I'm a little worried about the nest that is just outside the bedroom window here. There was nobody sitting on the nest practically all day yesterday although my mother mentioned that late in the afternoon she saw the mother bird come and sit. But that was only for a few minutes. The nest remained empty today except for at least some ten minutes this morning when I saw the mother bird show up. She couldn't seem to settle down though and kept hopping in and out of the nest before eventually flying away.

The star of the show

Watching a few videos of pianist Cecile Licad on YouTube brings back memories of a fun incident during her solo piano recital at the 2002 Singapore Piano Festival which I attended: The audience was sitting during the intermission discussing the merits of first part of the recital when a piano tuner came onto the stage to tune the piano which had taken quite a beating--for Licad had just performed a demanding set of piano pieces by Liszt. A few murmurs and chuckles went through the crowd as the man went about his work. Then when he was done, the grateful audience applauded and gave him a cheer for his "performance". In response he grinned, waved and gave a bow before walking offstage.

MIA Father

A student applying for readmission came to me this afternoon to obtain my recommendation. His letter to the dean explained that his grandfather was the main breadwinner of their family because his father was "missing in action". But since his grandfather passed away recently , the student had to take on a job (which was mainly why he often missed classes) to help his mother who was now struggling to make ends meet and put him and his two younger siblings through college and another much younger sibling through grade school. I then inquired if his father was a member of the military. To my surprise he said that that wasn't the case. When he added with a meaningful look that his father simply "went missing in action" I realized what he meant.

Theo Jansen's Strandbeests

It's Labor Day here and what better way to close the day than to see the results of more than 16 years of labor of one Theo Jansen, Dutch artist and engineer. A modern day Leonardo da Vinci, he is known for having created a number of amazing "kinetic sculptures" meant to "live their own lives" on beaches, their movement relying on nothing but wind and water. These lifelike strandbeests remind me so much of people's models over at Sodaplay but in three dimensions.

Labor Day's labors

What did I do today? Aside from my usual chores here at home, I got to vacuum unsightly spiderwebs off the ceiling and corners of both my bedroom and bathroom. A hot muggy summer is not exactly a good time to do heavy house work but then when else would one have the time to clean? I also helped my mother create tables for her research report in MS Word. It was a challenge simplifying what I do so automatically so that my mother could easily follow my instructions. In other words, MS Word for Mummies. Hehe.